Read A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English Online
Authors: Dr. Edward Woods,Rudy Coppieters
A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (3 page)
(from R. Carter & M. McCarthy,
Exploring Spoken English
, C.U.P. 1997, pp. 32, 33)
1.3. Tag questions and ellipsis
With
tag questions
the speaker asserts something and then invites the listener’s response. Initial ellipsis is a characterisation of informal talk. It creates the sort of relaxed atmosphere that we try to achieve in a cooperative social situation.
Task one *
Complete the statements below by adding tag questions.
1.
You saw Anne last week, ……………?
2.
I was sorry for you on your holiday. It rained every day, ……………?
3.
I’d like to be back in England now. The Spring flowers are out, ……………?
4.
They’re very young, so we won’t tell them about Uncle David, ……………?
5.
I know they were late, but the car broke down, ……………?
6.
He hasn’t failed the exam again, ……………?
7.
I can see it in your face. You don’t remember meeting me, ……………?
8.
The bank wouldn’t lend them the money, ……………?
9.
I am coming with you, ……………?
10.
We’ll meet again next week to discuss this further, ……………?
Task two *
Complete the sentences below by adding what has been omitted through initial ellipsis.
1.
Quite a comic, isn’t he?
2.
Sound like my mother, don’t I?
3.
Very difficult, isn’t it?
4.
Something to do with a strike, wasn’t it?
5.
Not coming with us, are you?
6.
Didn’t believe all that nonsense, did you?
7.
Couldn’t tell him that, could I?
8.
Solve the problem, won’t he?
9.
Get the money, won’t you?
10.
Seen that before, haven’t we?
Task three *
Complete the sentences below by adding what has been omitted through initial ellipsis.
1.
Thought it was a good film.
2.
Mind coming a bit earlier, say 5.30?
3.
Had a good day in Siena.
4.
Bought some good local wine.
5.
Hope you had a good holiday.
6.
Tell me where Elizabeth Street is, please?
7.
Wasn’t me! I wasn’t there.
8.
Can’t help you! Sorry!
9.
Really think it was me? I can’t believe that.
10.
Gotta be off now, haven’t we?
Task four **
Rewrite the following sentences, omitting part of the sentences.
1.
I hope you don’t mind my asking, but did you really threaten to resign?
2.
You can’t believe a word he says.
3.
I saw them out together again last night. They’re getting on very well, aren’t they!?
4.
It didn’t help that you were half-an-hour late.
5.
I’ve gotta get this in the post by tonight.
6.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the best grades.
7.
I don’t know why he thought we weren’t coming.
8.
There’s no problem about leaving so early.
9.
You didn’t bother to let him know, did you?
10.
I can’t help thinking we should have done more to help her.
A preference for coordination of clauses, rather than subordination of clauses, is often a characteristic of speech. Phrasal coordination, on the other hand, is a characteristic of writing.
Task one **
Rewrite the sentences below using clause-level coordination rather than subordination or phrasal coordination.
1.
If you are late again, you’ll be fired.
2.
Now that he’s been to Italy, he wants to live there.
3.
Neither John nor Mary can answer the question.
4.
You’ll meet Sally if you go to the new coffee bar.
5.
Now that you’ve been paid, you should be happy.
6.
Neither Irene nor I can understand this tax form, although we’re both accountants.
7.
When that tree grows higher, it will damage the telephone lines.
8.
If you stop eating so late, you’ll sleep better.
9.
Both the Wilsons and the Brooks went to Egypt for their holiday.
10.
Because he upset the old lady, I don’t want to meet him.
Task two **
Rewrite the sentences below using subordination rather than coordination.
1.
Finish that work tonight and you can take the rest of the week off.
2.
He’s got the manager’s job and won’t speak to his old friends.
3.
They’ve got a new car and will be telling everyone how much it cost.
4.
I don’t like that house. It’s too dark and miserable.
5.
He’s been all over the world and thinks he knows everything.
6.
We’ve changed our money from Francs to Euros and everything costs more.
7.
The fire spread quickly and the whole factory was destroyed.
8.
The crowds were waiting patiently at the side of the road. Then suddenly it began to rain.
9.
Get there early or they won’t let you in.
10.
Get the early train and you’ll have a good day in the city.
1.5. Finite clauses in spoken English
In written English, we often use non-finite and verbless clauses as adverbials and modifiers. Such constructions would be highly unlikely in speech, where finite clauses and coordination are preferred.
Task one **
The sentences below are more likely to be formal, written English. Rewrite them in a form more likely in spoken English.
1.
After winning the race, he enjoyed the prize money.
2.
Having been in trouble in school before, the boy was afraid to tell his mother why he was home so late.
3.
Having missed the last train, he stayed at his sister’s overnight.
4.
Feeling ill, he decided not to go to work that day.
5.
Built in 1903, the theatre was too big for small, contemporary plays.
6.
Of all the mothers interviewed not in paid work, the majority intended to return to work when their children were older.
7.
Given the steepness of the stairs, it was an accident waiting to happen.
8.
Taking the dog for a walk across the fields, he realised that the new road they were going to build would go very near his own house.
9.
On reading the biography of Sophia Loren, she determined to become an actress.
10.
Getting home late, he found everyone had gone to bed.
Task two ***
The sentences below are more likely to be informal, spoken English. Rewrite them in a form more suitable for formal, written English.
1.
Pete reminded her about the visit and hoped she would come.
2.
They reorganised the shop but still didn’t get a lot of customers.
3.
I saw her in the street and told her the good news.
4.
They bought an old house, modernised it and made a lot of money when they resold it.
5.
When you get to the top of the hill, you get a good view over the plain.
6.
I didn’t like that stuff they gave us to eat last night. I left most of it on my plate.
7.
He went to a lot of trouble to get the picture and so expected they would pay him a good price.
8.
They felt very depressed – their team had lost for the third time.
9.
I haven’t been to Mexico before so I don’t know what to expect.
10.
We yelled at the top of our voices, but nobody took any notice.
The rhythm of spoken English can be felt in the sequence of stressed syllables. Between one stressed syllable and another there may occur one or more unstressed syllables.
Stressed syllables: | (i) | one-syllable words belonging to one of the major word-classes |
(ii) | accented syllables of words of more than one syllable of major word-classes. | |
Unstressed syllables: | (i) | one-syllable words belonging to one of the minor word-classes |
(ii) | unaccented syllables of words of more than one syllable. |
In most contexts, prepositional adverbs are normally stressed while one-syllable prepositions are usually unstressed.
Task one *
Put stress marks in front of stressed syllables in the following sentences.
1.
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
2.
The tourist forgot to buy a ticket at the counter.
3.
Janet is throwing a party for her twentieth birthday.
4.
We met in Rome, visited the sights and then flew home.
5.
John is fond of chocolate but Mary thoroughly dislikes it.
6.
I was admiring the landscape that unfolded in front of my eyes.
7.
This unexpected encounter with my worst enemy really upset me.
8.
Do you remember the dramatic events of September the eleventh?
9.
The United Nations decided to lift the embargo imposed on military equipment.
10.
As a true democrat, I sincerely hope that democracy will always prevail over tyranny.
11.
Slow progress has been made to persuade the warring factions to accept a compromise.
12.
The photographer had taken a dozen pictures, all of which appeared in glossy magazines.
Task two **
Specify whether the underlined words in the following text are stressed or not.
Many people tend to be put
off
learning foreign languages as it also means taking
in
a lot
of
foreign grammar and vocabulary. Having attended two or three classes, they simply give
up
and put the whole thing
on
the backburner.
As time goes
by,
however, those who dropped
out
are beginning to wonder how they will be getting
on
in
the country they’ve chosen to go
to
for
their next holiday. So they happily turn
to
a popular phrasebook written
for
the average tourist, convinced that they will easily get
by
under
foreign skies.
After their plane has touched
down
, these tourists cheerfully get
through
customs control, where the stock phrases come
out
all right. Then they set
off
in
a hired car, driving
on
and
on
… until they run
out
of
petrol or the car breaks
down
, leaving them stranded
on
a lonely road. The nearest farm is miles
away
but, fortunately, a local person happens to drive
by,
slow
down
and back
up
their car. Now the poor tourists are
in
for
a nasty surprise: no more stock phrases but sentences they’ve never heard or used before. So the conversation virtually breaks
down
and all
of
a sudden the tourists remember their language classes, making a silent vow to pick
up
again where they left
off
.
Task three **
(a) | Arrange the underlined words in two groups depending on which word-class they belong to. |
(b) | Check whether there is a match between stress and word-class. |
Some stressed syllables have greater prominence than others and form the nucleus, or focal point, of an intonation pattern.
The basic unit of intonation is the tone unit, a stretch of speech which contains one such nucleus. A sentence contains one or more tone units, depending on its length and the degree of emphasis given to its various parts.
Task **
Mark any tone unit boundaries in the following sentences with vertical bars, underlining the syllables which would normally form the nucleus of the respective tone units.
1.
My only sister is married to an accountant.
2.
Would you give me the bottle opener, please.
3.
Shirley was watching a film by Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense.
4.
Hurricane Freddy swept across Indonesia last night and is now heading for Japan.
5.
Although the war has been over for years, there are still occasional clashes along the border.
6.
The new car model comes in four colours: red, dark blue, grey and white.